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USCIS proposes increasing filing fees of a lot of commonly used applications. Most of them are for business immigration filings and family based immigration applications. See some of the proposed fee increases below.

You can make a comment on the fee increase until July 5, 2016. USCIS depends on the fees to pay for its services. So USCIS was one of the few agencies not affected by the government shut down last year.

Proposed fees

Form

Purpose

Current Fee

Proposed Increase

Change

I-129

For Worker

$325

$460

+$135

I-130

For Family immigration

$420

$535

+$115

I-140

For Work based immigration

$580

$700

+$120

I-485

Work/Family GC*

$1,070

$1,225

+$155

I-539

Change visas

$290

$370

+$80

I-765

Work authorization

$385

$410

+$30

I-90

Renew GC

$365

$455

+$90

I-129F

Fiancé Visa

$340

$535

+$195

I-751

Get a 10 year GC*

$505

$595

+$90

N-400

Naturalize

$595

$640

+$45

N-600

Citizenship Certificate

$600

$1170

+$570

*Green Card

Nalini S Mahadevan, Esq

P: 314.932.7111 nsm@mlolaw.us www.mlolaw.us

Disclaimer: Please do not rely on this blog for legal advice. Call me if you want to get advice and sign an engagement letter with my law firm.

ICE cancels F-1 Student visas

On April 4 and 5, 2016, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) terminated the visa of nonimmigrant students who had enrolled at the University of Northern New Jersey (UNNJ), and the visas of nonimmigrant students who had transferred from UNNJ.

Why?

The students were found to have knowingly participated in visa fraud because they enrolled at UNNJ to obtain an illegal to maintain their F-1 nonimmigrant status.

UNNJ is a school operated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark. It was created as a part of an enforcement action that targeted SEVP-certified schools and officials who sought to fraudulently utilize SEVP and the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) to commit various violations of federal law.

There are approximately 60 students who are affected and who will receive notification of cancellation of their visa.

Students who are terminated because they were currently or enrolled before at UNNJ and choose not to file for reinstatement or have applied to USCIS for reinstatement and whose application is denied, must depart the country immediately.

Not Eligible for Transfer

These students are not eligible for to transfer to another SEVP-certified school unless U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approves the student for reinstatement following the student’s termination. Students who transferred to another school from UNNJ will also be terminated and their new school will be notified of the cancellation of their visa.

What to do now?

Call SEVP Response Center at 703-603-3400. This number is staffed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (ET), Monday through Friday, except holidays. The SEVP Response Center is closed every Wednesday from 12:45 to 1:30 p.m. ET for system maintenance and testing.

Provide the following information when calling:

First and last name

SEVIS ID number

Address

Telephone number where you can be reached

E-mail address

Current SEVP-certified school

Nalini Mahadevan JD, MBA

Attorney at Law

314-932-7111 office

nsm@mlolaw.us

website: Mlolaw.us

Disclaimer: Not meant as legal advice. NOT meant to create an attorney client relationship. Please call an attorney to obtain advice pertaining to your legal situation.

There are only a few items investors with EB-5 visas need to remember. First, they can choose any size project — either a regional center project or a direct investment project. Second, there is no magic size to the project; project investment can be $500,000 or $1 million, but there is no green card unless the project creates 10 jobs for every investor. The 10 jobs must be created by the time the conditions on residency are approved to be removed by USCIS.

The return on investment is very low — in the low single digits — but the real reward is the green card. So choose a lawyer and a project you can trust to see you to the end of the process.

It has been a big pain to ask clients to send their original documents via mail from overseas for submission to the National Visa Center (NVC). It’s painful because clients are afraid that their documents can be lost in the mail, in their own country, or in the US Attorney’s office, which has to exercise care so that original documents are not lost. Finally, sometimes originals are not returned to clients after the interview by the consular officer interviewing them in the foreign country. For elderly clients who have submitted original documents from countries where they no longer reside, and these documents are over 50 years old, submitting originals to NVC poses a real issue.

Finally, NVC has woken up to the reality of paper, original document preservation and handling, and the burden that it imposes on all concerned. Since the consular officer can examine the originals brought in by the applicant, there seems no reason for original documents to be sent to NVC in the US, only to have them turned around and sent back to where they came from!

Midterm elections are next week; the hot-ticket issue this time around is immigration reform, which has proved to be a very explosive issue for both political parties. President Obama has decided that he will take immigration reform head-on only after midterm elections are over.

The political pundits say the Republicans are slated to win both House and Senate. Either way, immigration reform will happen whether Republicans or Democrats retain the Senate or House.

If the Republicans win the Senate, then they have to do something to woo the immigrant vote, which is 10% Latino. South Asians and Southeast Asians have also increased their voting numbers. Both these populations want immigration reform to happen because they all have family or friends who may benefit. American business needs tech workers in both healthcare and business. If the Democrats win, Obama will preserve the immigrant vote by executing immigration reform by Executive Order, increasing the number of H1B visas and giving H4 visa holders employment authorization like he did for ‘dreamers.’

Under Republican leadership, the US could increase border security with a virtual wall, and create more visas for H2B and H1B because of the demand and because it is cheaper to monitor the visa issue rather than spend billions on border security, which is found to be full of holes (pun unintended!).

Beginning in mid-September, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is streamlining the entry process for first-time Canadian TN and L applicants seeking entry into the US under NAFTA. CBP has designated ports of entry that will ensure a more efficient approach to processing the high volume of TN and L applicants.

The TN nonimmigrant classification permits qualified Canadian and Mexican citizens to seek temporary entry into the US to engage in business activities at a professional level. The L-1 nonimmigrant classification — Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager — enables a US employer to transfer an executive or manager from one of its affiliated foreign offices to one of its offices in the US. This classification also enables a foreign company that does not yet have an affiliated US office to send an executive or manager to the US with the purpose of establishing one.

While there is no requirement to go to these designated ports of entry, first-time applicants are encouraged to enter through these ports for ‘optimized processing’ at 14 ports, including 4 pre-clearance centers.

Massachusetts has created a loophole program, called Global Entrepreneur in Residence (GER), to permit foreign students to stay legally in the US.

Foreign students who attended college in Massachusetts and who want to pursue entrepreneurial activities in the state can apply to the GER Program, which is being run by the Massachusetts Tech Collaborative, an independent state agency designed to promote the advancement of technology in the state. Chosen individuals will be given a job at a participating universities in Massachusetts—the students will work part-time and will submit visa applications sponsored by the university. The program is expected to grow 46,000 jobs for students.

US immigration law dictates that foreign students can study at US colleges and universities under a student visa—after they graduate, their visas expire and they have to find a US employer to sponsor them for an H-1B visa. The H-1B visa system inherently poses a disadvantage for entrepreneurs, the system only allows for a once-per-year application process—in the form of a lottery—and the slots fill up quickly. On April 7, 2014, USCIS reported that it had secured its quota of 85,000 H-1B visa petitions only five days after it began receiving applications.

This is why the GER Program’s loophole is important: colleges and universities are immune to the cap and can submit applications for employers at any time. This means foreign graduates have a higher chance of obtaining a visa through the GER Program, and through employment with higher-education institutions, because these institutions are exempt from the cap.

The House bill proposed to devise a new category of startup visas for foreign entrepreneurs, while also raising the amount of H-1B visas accessible to immigrants with advanced degrees. While the Massachusetts program is yet to be funded, this is a great start for foreign graduates whom the US needs to retain!

On April 7, USCIS announced that it had received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption.

USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions during the filing period which began April 1, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. On April 10, 2014, USCIS completed a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. For cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing.

Advanced Degrees Get Two Bites of the Apple

The agency conducted the selection process for the advanced degree exemption first. All advanced degree petitions not selected then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.

On March 25, USCIS announced that they would begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than April 28.

Non-Cap-Based H1B Visa Applications

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted towards the Congressionally mandated FY 2015 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;

Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;

Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and

Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

While the Form I-797 receipt notice indicates the date USCIS received the premium processing fee, the 15-day processing period set by 8 CFR 103.7(e)(2) will begin no later than April 28, 2014. This allows for USCIS to take-in the anticipated high number of filings, conduct the lottery to determine which cases meet the cap, and prepare the volume of cases for premium and regular processing.

The 15-day processing period for premium processing service for H-1B petitions that are not subject to the cap, or for any other eligible classification, continues to begin on the date that the request is received.

Clearly, since there are so many applications, more visas should be issued. The cost of non-availability of specialized knowledge workers for the US economy is enormous!

See you in my next blog.

Nalini S Mahadevan, JD, MBAImmigration Attorney St. Louis, Missouri

The information is not meant to create a client-attorney relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for legal advice. Situations may differ based on the facts.

The H1B visa season is upon us, the filing date was on April 1, 2014, and like last year is expected to be oversubscribed. What visas can a company consider once the H1B visas are exhausted for the season?

This year, let us consider non-H1B countries, where alternative visas are available for skilled workers.

For Mexicans and Canadians

The TN visa under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Until this time, only Canadians could apply directly to the consulate or embassy or enter through the Canadian/US border with the proper credentials.

On February 10th, 2014, the US Department of State published a final rule that Mexicans applying for a TN visa could apply at the consulate or embassy in the US without first seeking approval from USCIS, or before applying for a TN visa at the US embassy or consulate in Mexico.

This is a giant leap forward for immigration, according similar trusted status for citizens south of the border.

Of course, applicants must be sponsored by an employer with a genuine job offer, and job duties must conform to the NAFTA guidelines.

While TN visas require non-immigrant intent—which means the applicant cannot apply for a green card from a TN visa status—the visa allows renewal in the US, and under tax treaties, allows the worker to accumulate the equivalent of Social Security in their country of origin.

There used to be a ceiling on admissions of TN, but that is not the case anymore.

See you in my next blog.

Nalini S Mahadevan, JD, MBAImmigration Attorney St. Louis, Missouri

The information is not meant to create a client-attorney relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for legal advice. Situations may differ based on the facts.